Network operators across the world tend to earn a large portion of revenue from their roaming subscribers. Primarily, inbound roamers (i.e., subscribers) are major contributors of roaming revenue for most of the network operators. However, the network operators providing roaming services to the inbound roamers face various challenges—like fraud risk—whenever these subscribers roam outside their home network coverage.
The Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) industry has defined various solutions for limiting that fraud risk. In one such solution, home network operators whose subscribers are roaming in a visited network exchange High Usage Reports (HUR) of its subscribers with the visited network operator. As a result, the visited network operator is able to notify home network operators about potential fraud risks. Although the visited network generally sends the HUR to a home network operator of the inbound roamers in less than thirty six hours after the completion of the inbound roamers' mobile communication (e.g., voice calls or Short Message Service (SMS) or General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)); however, it still leaves sufficient time for fraudsters to cheat. Also, the HUR lacks important information, such as called number, individual call duration, International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) etc.
Another solution to assist the GSM industry in reducing the fraud risk is Fraud Information Gathering System (FIGS) solution by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). FIGS is a part of the development of new services for Customized Application for Mobile Enhanced Logic (CAMEL). However, it requires both home and visited network operators to support CAMEL protocol and possess a CAMEL agreement with each other. Moreover, the FIGS solution requires the home network to identify/monitor and flag fraudulent customers before they can use any roaming service in the visited network, which is practically not feasible since all new subscribers' accounts can be monitored only for a certain period. The use of FIGS to monitor all customers is impossible as the required amount of data and signaling may prove to be inefficient and may negatively impact the network capacity. This gives fraudsters the opportunity to commit roaming frauds as flag may be lifted based on the knowledge that monitoring has stopped.
In yet another solution, GSM Association (GSMA) has defined a Near Real-Time Data Roaming Exchange (NRTRDE) guideline to counter the roaming fraud. Unlike FIGS solution, the NRTRDE guideline does neither require the home network operator to identify its fraudulent accounts in advance, therefore increasing the possibility of trapping fraudsters; nor does it require the home and visited network operators to support CAMEL protocol and possess a CAMEL agreement. The NRTRDE guideline that may replace the existing High Usage Reporting (HUR) process has the following two essential functions:                Reduce the required timeframe for delivery of fraud related roaming information from the visited network to the home network from thirty six hours to a maximum of four hours, and        Provide individual Call Detail Record (CDR) in sufficient form (i.e., NRTRDE file format) to the home network operator so as to allow the home and visited network operators to cost effectively manage roaming fraud.        
Moreover, according to the NRTRDE guideline, the visited network operator is liable for any fraud loss that occurs after expiration of the four hour deadline. One existing approach to create NRTRDE file is based on the adaptation of mediation and billing system at the visited network operator's end. In this case, when the inbound roamer from the home network performs mobile activity while roaming in the visited network, a network element in the visited network (such as Mobile Switching Center (MSC)) generates CDR for this mobile communication. The NRTRDE guideline requires the visited network to collect information from these mobile activities, usually in a raw data format, and deliver them in a normalized format (such as a TD.35 format) to the home network in near real time. The raw CDR generated by the visited network element can be presented in many different formats and usually depends on the type of network elements involved.
Furthermore, in order to support the NRTRDE guideline, the visited network operator needs to filter the roaming information from the raw data. The visited network operator also needs to parse the roaming information into separate NRTRDE files, with each file containing roaming information specific to a single home network. The collection and aggregation of this raw information can also be performed in several ways, although the majority of visited network operators utilize some form of billing and mediation system to automate this activity. Also, the process collection, filtering and parsing of roaming information is at the discretion of the visited network operator. However, it creates the need for a third party vendor to be able to handle and adapt to the different network operator environments (e.g., MSC CDR format, billing and mediation system etc.). Moreover, the process of creating NRTRDE files in the required four hours deadline requires immediate collection of the CDR thus resulting in structural changes of the visited network's billing and mediation system. Furthermore, it involves the periodical extraction of event information (e.g., call duration for Mobile Originating (MO) call etc.) from various network elements; which is usually asynchronous with the actual mobile communication. Hence, the existing process of creating and delivering NRTRDE files to the home network is occurring in near-real time. Every hour of delay in receiving NRTRDE files at the home network is crucial, as it leaves enough time for fraud. In other words, despite reducing timeframe to the four hour deadline for controlling fraud, the fraud risk is still not completely under control.
In accordance with the foregoing, there is a need in the art of a system, a method, and a computer program product, which allow the visited network to create and exchange NRTRDE files with the home network in real time without affecting the existing billing and mediation system of the visited network, so as to reduce the roaming fraud risk.